We are living the most exciting of the times

As humans, we have experienced life evolution from single-cell organisms to the highly intellectual, creative and innovative creatures we are today. It is hard to grasp the magnitude of awesomeness and miracle this is; we did not get witness the chaotic geological primitive soup that was earth and the evolutionary stages that lead to our human existence. However, there is a second astonishing element happening right now, which, this time, we are experiencing. Let me explain:

In an expanding universe, change is the only constant and life on earth has experienced such change at incremental speeds. James Martin synthesizes this in stages in his book “The meaning of the 1st Century”. He groups evolution stages in: “Primary, Secondary and Tertiary”.

Primary:

The transition from the mentioned single-celled to multi-celled organisms that went from bacteria to dinosaurs and “from monkeys to human”, the type of 20th century human that discovered science and literature. This took EARTH “about 3 billion years”.

Secondary:

“Refers to the process by which an intelligent species learns how to create its own form of evolution”. This period considers the human living in the first years of the 21st century when machines where invented, the birth and spread of computers, manufacturing, digital systems and later developments by the billions of intelligent inventors around the world. This started with the industrial revolution and the latter spread of technology. This took US about 300 years.

Tertiary:

This stage refers to “an intelligent species” that “learns to automate evolution itself”. You know, artificial intelligence, self-learning algorithms, computer networks, virtual reality, and nanotechnology. This is happening RIGHT NOW and in only the next 50 years our world will be very different. In 100 years the leap will be so massive that everything we are doing today literally determines if our children or grandchildren will survive. As Martin says: “IT IS AWESOME TO REFLECT THAT EVOLUTION IS IN OUR HANDS NOW”.

We have tremendous power, and with it, responsibility. Therefore, in addition to the well-taught traditional hard skills, we need school programs that develop the “broadness, synthesis and, ultimately, wisdom of human thinking”, link the mechanisms of evolution we have created and we need education that teach us how to manage our planet better.

Today we all are interconnected and a shift of consciousness towards personal and global wellbeing is noticeable. There is a sense of possible self and world transformation; hence the sustainability trends, our constant search for self-improvement and our quest for a higher purpose.

We are living in the most exciting times. Our world needs us to marry our personal with our collective worlds. Our humanity with our implementing disciplines (economic, business, law, engineering, media, etc.), the amazing technology with politics. Our minds with our hearts.

This holistic view is the baseline of Education for World Futures, because we know that this future is now and we think we all matter, therefore this matters to us all.